Please welcome the newest addition to the Liverpool’s team roster, the former Southampton’s defender, Virgil van Dijk. Yesterday, both sides finally confirmed that Virgil would be switching teams as of January 1st. The best part, van Dijk is joining the Liverpool squad for record-breaking £75 million, or $100 million (it has a nicer ring to it).

Now, this amount doesn’t even come close to the Neymar’s transfer of €222 million from Barcelona to PSG. However, that is a striker deal, and we all know that strikers are the ones with the big transfer fees.

On the other hand, defenders go for much lower rates. Therefore, Virgil’s £75 million comes as a shock for most of us. And we are not saying that he isn’t worth that much. Van Dijk deserves every single pound of that deal. But when the previous record holder is Benjamin Mendy with a £50 million transfer deal, we cannot but be surprised.

That’s enough numbers for today. Let’s talk about what does this transfer mean for Liverpool.

Well, as most of you already know, Liverpool is having a hard time taking the Premier League crown for the last couple of years. This season, in particular, they are 20 points behind the leaders Manchester City.

While the Premier League trophy might be out of their reach in this year, Liverpool is still waging battles on a couple of fronts. First, they are still in the running for the Champions League. Additionally, the FA Cup starts early next year, so they are gunning for that trophy as well.

With the Virgil van Dijk transfer, they are hoping to fill in the gaps in their play. They already have 23 goals conceded. So, Liverpool officials are hoping to bring that number down in the other half of the season, and van Dijk is their trump card.

Fortunately, we will have the chance to see Virgil play on January 1st when Liverpool squares off against Burnley. Also, we have a feeling that the UK betting apps will be lowering the odds for Liverpool come January.